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Indiana Jones Raiders Hat Brim Shape

moontheloon

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,590
Location
NJ
I don't know how I miss this thread but I'll try to answer the original questions and please forgive me I didn't read the entire thread.

The raiders hat was creased off center ( which a lot like to call "the turn") to give it character. It was flanged like any other fedora. The dimensional cut brim with the "turn" lifts the brim out of Harrisons eyes and at the same time give the hat a bit of character. if gives the brim asymmetrical brim all around. This is where the confusion is. if you took the Raiders hat with the turn and moved it back to cent you would see the flange of the brim.

As for cutting a dimensional brim with a rounding jack. I had a rounding jack made special for me to get the dimensional cut for the Indy hats. my standard rounding jack can't.

I hope that helps and anyone is welcome to call at anytime. so feel free.

if anyone knows this information it is this man right here

I'm sure you know who he is
 

ukay

New in Town
Messages
2
Location
Nsw, australia
Be careful with that whole Adventurer model of hat from Akubra. There are two very different hats with that same name. David Morgan has an Indy styled hat with that name which is nice and Everything Australian has one which is similar to the Coober Pedy which is nice, but NOTHING like the Indy hat aside from a dimensional brim. They say it is and the photo seems a bit like it, but it has a hard and low crown with taper.
 

ukay

New in Town
Messages
2
Location
Nsw, australia
My australian adventurer looks nothing like david morgans one
I bought a australian adventurer and it looks nothing like david morgans one !!!
 

ChicagoWayVito

Practically Family
Messages
699
As for cutting a dimensional brim with a rounding jack. I had a rounding jack made special for me to get the dimensional cut for the Indy hats. my standard rounding jack can't.

I would love to see some pictures of your rounding jack that can cut a dimensional brim with an explanation of how it works. Any chance of sharing who made it for you? My standard rounding jack won't do it either.
 

TheDane

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,670
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
I would love to see some pictures of your rounding jack that can cut a dimensional brim with an explanation of how it works. Any chance of sharing who made it for you? My standard rounding jack won't do it either.
I would live to see and hear more about that too. I can't imagine how such a jack would be built.

The rounding jacks for dimensional brims, I have seen, all worked the other way around - making the brim wider left/right and shorter front/back. They were used for stiff hats with curled brim.

I can't seem to wrap my head around the technique for doing the opposite :)
 

bendingoak

Vendor
Messages
613
Location
www.Penmanhats.com
It's a special rounding Jack that I designed with a buddy. I have a few tools that I designed with the help of my good buddy. I have some vintage tools but took a while to accumulate them. I tweaked the designs of them to fit like I like to work and some I just came up with.
 

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,161
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
It really depends on the hat.

I have three Fed IVs. They are all 59s. My brown one is the snuggest, I've had it longest, and have worn it the most. My head is a long oval, so the hat's brim automatically took on a swoopier appearance just from it's first summer of everyday summer outdoor wear on my head, which contorted the brim ever so slightly.

My gray IV is looser on me, so it doesn't respond to the mis-shapenness that a RO hat on a LO head will be subjected to. This hat's brim, therefore, stays flatter when I wear it.

The tan one just needs more head time.

I also have a Fed III. This is a totally different hat than the Fed IV. It is larger in every dimension, although also a 59.

A couple of years ago I took it apart because a hole was beginning to form at the top of the tight front pinch (I bought the hat used). My intent was to sew everything back in/on in reverse so the back was now the front. When I was finished, I didn't like the way the brim sat, being very misshapen,and not in a good way.

I eventually called John, who was extraordinarily helpful. He explained brim break to me, and how much to turn the hat to get a desirably funky brim on it. I recreased the crown, and the hat has been this way ever since, and I am very happy with it.

A key difference I have found between the III and IV is the thickness and stiffness of the felt. The III is floppier, and therefore, yields a different and better result when turned. None of my IVs respond as well to a turn as my III. But that could be simply because the III is so well worn in. I'd love to get my hands on a newish III, but that seems to becoming impossible.
 
Last edited:

Rogera

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,365
Location
West Texas
Ok, but the thing is that a hat like a Federation 4 has a much larger flange than his hat. His hat looks nearly flat, with a very slight lip in it. So how would I get a hat like like the Federation 4 to look that way?
I think the Fed IV makes a much better Temale of Doom or Last Crusade than a Raiders anyway.

To flatten the flange on a Fed wet the brim and work it until it softens. Up some and flatten it with your hands. I imagine once you soften up the felt you can do anything you want with it. I happen to like the flanging on mine so don't mess with them
 

bendingoak

Vendor
Messages
613
Location
www.Penmanhats.com
It really depends on the hat.

I have three Fed IVs. They are all 59s. My brown one is the snuggest, I've had it longest, and have worn it the most. My head is a long oval, so the hat's brim automatically took on a swoopier appearance just from it's first summer of everyday summer outdoor wear on my head, which contorted the brim ever so slightly.

My gray IV is looser on me, so it doesn't respond to the mis-shapenness that a RO hat on a LO head will be subjected to. This hat's brim, therefore, stays flatter when I wear it.

The tan one just needs more head time.

I also have a Fed III. This is a totally different hat than the Fed IV. It is larger in every dimension, although also a 59.

A couple of years ago I took it apart because a hole was beginning to form at the top of the tight front pinch (I bought the hat used). My intent was to sew everything back in/on in reverse so the back was now the front. When I was finished, I didn't like the way the brim sat, being very misshapen,and not in a good way.

I eventually called John, who was extraordinarily helpful. He explained brim break to me, and how much to turn the hat to get a desirably funky brim on it. I recreased the crown, and the hat has been this way ever since, and I am very happy with it.

A key difference I have found between the III and IV is the thickness and stiffness of the felt. The III is floppier, and therefore, yields a different and better result when turned. None of my IVs respond as well to a turn as my III. But that could be simply because the III is so well worn in. I'd love to get my hands on a newish III, but that seems to becoming impossible.


It was my pleasure to help. call any time even if it is just to talk.
 

Doctor Jones

Familiar Face
Messages
96
Location
Orange County California
I just wanted to point out that there was mention in an article linked to, and inferences here and there, about "the hat" and how much wear and weathering the hat would receive on set and such. That's not how movies are made, though. Once a design is settled on there would be a number of hats, perhaps a dozen or more, all bashed and weathered to match, for Harrison Ford, stunt doubles, and so forth. On the set the costumer would grab a hat and they would do the shot. So there would be a number of "real hats" made for the production, and no-one can say which actually appear in a shot that made the final cut. It's the hat experts who analyse the move shot-by-shot who will notice small quirks that each of the many hats will have. In any case one has to take claims like "screen used" with a grain of salt. Yes the hats all look weathered and stained and dirty before they are ever worn by anybody, they don't acquire this weathering during shooting.
 

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